Summer 2006                    return to newsletter contents page

"Mega Issues" Present Challenges, Opportunities

Jan Noller

FPPA President

Your newly-elected Board of Directors held its first meeting of the year last month in Scottsdale, Arizona. I am pleased to report that it was an extremely productive meeting with a great deal of worthwhile discussion about the state of the industry.

The Board devoted a substantial amount of time to discussing “mega issues” – those things impacting all of our businesses and keeping us awake at night, including: Outsourcing of pre-press work to firms in

India  and Mexico; Consolidation among trade shops; and Converters bringing pre-press work in-house, to name just a few.

The Board discussed how these “mega issues” are impacting each of our businesses, the industry as a whole, and FPPA. What we discovered is that, while each of these issues pose challenges, they also present opportunities – particularly for those of us out in front, willing to address the issues early and head-on.

We’ll continue to look at and watch these issues closely in the coming months and years. One thing FPPA can do to assist us with this is to provide venues to discuss the issues openly and to offer programs that offer different perspectives and ways to address the situations. The upcoming FPPA Management Workshop, being held October 11-12 in Chicago will provide this opportunity. Mark it on your calendar and plan to come to Chicago to help us work through these issues…and let us help you work through them at the same time.

The Program Committee met in conjunction with the Board while we were in Scottsdale, and spent two days developing the program for next year’s Annual Convention, which will be held in Scottsdale on February 18-20. They have another great program in store for us with some new additions!

I am pleased to report that the Board has approved moving forward with the 2006 Industry Survey, using 2005 data. The last survey was conducted in 2003 and served as an outstanding benchmarking tool for those of us who participated in the survey. The survey provides platemakers with the data to compare themselves to their industry peers in such areas as sales and production, capital investment, and benefits and compensation. The Statistics Committee will be sending out the survey in the coming weeks. Watch your mailboxes and plan to participate.

We surveyed the membership earlier this Spring, asking whether you would be interested in co-locating our Spring Annual Convention with FTA’s Spring Meeting, beginning in 2007. The response was overwhelmingly in favor of maintaining a separate FPPA event, rather than combining with the FTA. So….that’s what we’ll continue to do. We appreciated your feedback on this important issue.

For those of you who attended the Annual Convention in Amelia Island in March, you experienced FPPA’s first Plate Material Comparison Test Program. We received excellent feedback from those of you who attended. We’ve committed to Part 2 of the program for next year’s Convention in Scottsdale, and we’ll be taking all of your comments and feedback into account as we fine-tune the test program.

See you in Chicago!